No-one can do the same job forever, and actors are more keen to stretch their legs than most – doing different things is basically the job description. But sometimes telly shows want to carry on after their star leaves, going to drastic lengths to extend their shelf life.

Here's some shows that managed to survive losing their star, thanks to some major plot overhauls.

1. Jodie Whittaker – Trust Me

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When Jodie Whittaker quit BBC medical drama Trust Me for a very different BBC medical drama (Doctor Who), the broadcaster could have been forgiven for quietly retiring the show.

"This follow-up series will bring the same tension and twists of the original show to a brand new medical arena," Sefton said.

2. Damian Lewis – Homeland

Damian Lewis was very much at the heart of Homeland when it started out – the first season was all about the investigation into his character Nick Brody, a US marine who'd been corrupted by terrorists, while the second run saw him exposed as a traitor and explored his redemption.

Come the third season, though, it was clear that the show's writers were running out of things to do with him. Lewis appeared in just half of that year's 12 episodes as a fugitive Brody, before Homeland took the bold decision to kill him off.

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With Brody gone, Homeland evolved into a globe-trotting spy thriller with Carrie (Claire Danes) investigating a different terrorist threat each season, while new characters – including Rupert Friend's Peter Quinn and F Murray Abraham's Dar Adal – took on greater prominence.

3. Angus T Jones – Two and a Half Men

While Charlie Sheen's departure after season eight precipitated the show's demise, it didn't shake up the format that much. Sheen was out, Kutcher was in. You still had two and a half men.

But Jones, the "half man", converted to the Forerunner Chronicles faith (based on, but not affiliated with Seventh-Day Adventism) at some point before season 10, and made his contempt for the morals of his show pretty clear. He left the show at the end of the season (though he later returned for the final episode of season 12).

When he went, the dynamic was completely different. As well as dotcom billionaire Kutcher having already replaced jingle writer Sheen, Amber Tamblyn came in as the absent Charlie's illegitimate, estranged, lesbian daughter. Which made it two men and one woman: totally different show.

4. Christopher Eccleston – Safe House

With an average of around 7 million viewers, it's no surprise ITV quickly commissioned a follow-up to its hit drama series, which starred Christopher Eccleston and Marsha Thomason as a couple who give shelter to a family under threat.

True Blood's Stephen Moyer made for a suitable replacement as the show's new male lead, with series two averaging out at a still-respectable 4 million. No word yet on if the show might continue on in an anthology format.

5. Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke – Scrubs

As we've detailed elsewhere, Scrubs' final season was a trainwreck. The previous season had wrapped everything up, only for the network to decide that they were carrying on regardless. Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke's storylines were complete, and technically they didn't actually leave – they just returned as background characters while a new class took over at the hospital.

As he himself admits, David Duchovny has "tried to say goodbye to Fox Mulder many times."

When the actor decided to dial down his work on the show to focus on his movie career, he appeared in half of season eight – then didn't appear in season nine until the finale, which served as the original series finale (before the recent reboot). "And they all went and they did the show without me," Duchovny said later. "So how do you like that? I'm feeling pretty pissed off, now that I remember."

The show did indeed carry on without him. Where it had previous rested squarely on the Duchovny-Anderson chemistry that had sustained it for so long, it soldiered on with new characters Agents Doggett (Robert Patrick)and Reyes (Annabeth Gish) in the driving seat, Anderson hanging around the sidelines and Skinner bumped up to "main character" duties alongside the newbies. It didn't last.